Yesterday in San Jose, volunteers turned sheets of foam into hand-painted tombstones, each one standing in for an unhoused neighbor who died on Santa Clara County streets this year. The makeshift markers are meant to put names and faces to lives that often vanish into statistics, and organizers plan to set up the display near the county government center as part of the annual winter memorial.
More than 100 unhoused people died on Santa Clara County streets between Dec. 1, 2024, and Nov. 30, 2025, according to NBC Bay Area. That total is lower than in recent years, a decline noted by KTVU as advocates prepare to mark each loss with a visual memorial.
Where the mock graveyard will appear
Organizers typically lay out the foam headstones on the plaza outside the County Government Center during the winter memorial, aiming to coincide with the winter solstice, which falls this Sunday, according to San José Spotlight. Volunteers with the Unhoused Response Group say carefully painting names and ages by hand helps preserve details that can be blurred or buried in official lists.
How the county tracks these deaths
The County Medical Examiner-Coroner maintains public case records and a dedicated dashboard that separates deaths among people experiencing homelessness, a tool the county described as giving researchers and advocates a clearer public window into mortality data when it launched it, according to the County of Santa Clara. Local coverage has used those public records to follow year-to-year shifts in the toll, according to Local News Matters.
Advocates: decline does not equal success
Organizers told San José Spotlight the tombstones are meant to show the human cost behind the numbers and to give people who knew the deceased a place to mourn. They also see the display as a public nudge to expand outreach, low-barrier shelter and permanent housing in hopes of preventing more deaths in the years ahead…